Carousel activity: pictures, equation and general info to be spread around the classroom, depending on level of ability.
Demo: Yeast and glucose solution, with layer of oil on top. Delivery tube to limewater.
Year 9 - iGCSE Biology, higher ability.
Lesson on human populations and limiting factors which affect population growth. Cover bacterial sigmoid curve (to be printed for students). I used an old sheet of exam questions (not uploaded) to test their understanding of growth curves.
Next lesson: to look at population pyramids.
Article relating to a modern recreation of Priestley's photosynthesis experiment, with comprehension questions. Used for higher ability student in my Biology class.
Lesson to a mixed ability year 7 group, 100 minute session but could be adjusted.
Market place activity, using differentiated booklets. AfL Dice game.
Followed by more ethics based activities, looking at how doctors can make the decision of who receives a donor organ. Developing higher order thinking skills (Bloom's) by ranking and justifying ideas.
Donor cards to be printed, and used as exit pass for 3-2-1 plenary.
Presentation to introduce learning in Science. Gets pupils to reflect on science in Primary schools and discuss their anxieties/excitement for secondary school science.
In small groups, use A3 paper for pupils to draw their mental image of a scientist. 99% will go with the mad scientist stereotype. Look at each other's drawings, and then go through some images of 'real-life' scientist, to get pupils to reconsider their initial stereotype - making the point that we can all be scientists as we make hypotheses, analyse, and consider solutions.
Skills sort (I laminated these) - Which skills are most important to a scientist. Pupils work in small groups, and generate excellent discussion, with teacher playing devil's advocate. Gets pupils to think about how scientists actually work.
Finally pupils can redraw their scientists, annotating diagrams with the key skills which a scientist may showcase!
Really fun lesson.
Taught to a higher ability year 10 class over several lessons.
Lesson 1 - The structure of the Heart
Lesson 2 - Blood vessels
Lesson 3 - Components of the blood (station activity, students collect info from around the room on the 4 components, and then apply their knowledge to answer exam-style questions).
Designed for high ability year 8s - in small groups, pupils use the provided information to plan a mini 'lesson' on their allocated deficiency.
One pupils stays at their station to teach others - the rest move around the room, learning about the other deficiencies. They then return to their group, and teach their presenter about what they have learnt.
Move on to look at BMIs, with some celeb data. Pupils are prompted to consider how this may not be a reliable measure of health. e.g. rugby player categorised as obese.
Short intro with PowerPoint presentation.
Students given SOLO sheet to work through, with support from new AQA textbook. Enables pupils to develop their understanding at their appropriate level of learning, meaning some will progress through the sheet further than others.
Used with high ability year 10 class.
Eye diagram unlabelled (blown up to A3) given to each group, with a set of label cards. First use prior knowledge to label the diagram - assessing prior knowledge.
Then move around the room collecting information on the structures of the eye, filling in the worksheet. Return to group, and use this information to have another go at labelling the diagram. Excellent means of showing progress.
Move on to each label their own diagram, and discuss rods/cones - linking back to previous lesson on the Nervous system.
Used with high ability year 10 class.
Work through SOLO levels of understanding. Accompanied by AQA textbook, but any would do/could be shown in lesson with students later demonstrating their understanding.
Lesson designed for high ability class - but could be adapted to suit any needs.
- Began lesson with recap to previous learning relating to the nervous system.
- Assess prior knowledge using laminated structure labels and A3 eye diagram.
- Students move around the room using the table, and assorted sheets to collect information.
- Use this information to reorder their labelled diagram, now they have a enhanced understanding.
- Discussion regarding perception of colour
- Plenary ('To the left'): books closed, each group gets a new diagram. In silence, one person in the group labels a structure, and passes it to the left, and so on. pupils may amend each others' answers, but this is a silent activity to check understanding.